Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-11-04
HOstelries in Persia.

Across the Persian frontier the khan
| retres in favor of the chapar-khana post
house, and caravanserai, writes Thomas
Stevens in the New York Sun. These
institutions are found along the main
highways of travel, from twenty to
thirty miles apart. The former are sta
tions for changing horses when travelling
chapar, or horseback; the latter are
huge brick buildings for the shelter of
caravans and travellers. The chapar-
khana is something of an improvement
upon the khan of Turkey. There is
usually fairly snug room, and men
eager to earn money by attending to
ones wants. The Persian chapar-jee is
more provident and money earning
individual than the unbusiness- like Turk,
and he generally has few hens scratching
about the stables. Eggs are almost al
ways to be obtained from him, and grease
of some kind to fry them with. Per-
chance he has about the place battered
Russian samovar: if so, and the traveller
has brought with him tea and sugar, the
chapar-jee will consider himselfin clover
in being allowed to fire up the samovar
and make tchai. Tchai is luxury with
him, and one gets on good terms with
him a.Hnce by sharing the tea after he
has madei it. But the chapar-khana has
its drawbacks. 1t is but a makeshift
sort of accommodation, after all. The
chapar- -jee will most likely be able to
provide you with some kind of covering
for the night, but have often preferred
to shiver the midnight hours away with
no covering at all to using the quilts
rendered. One of the chapar- jee's little
weaknesses is to seize a bunch of camel
thorn upon the travellers arrival and fill
the room with dust by vigorously sweep
ing the dry dirt floor. Another one is to
fill the room with binding clouds Of
smoke while cooking your eggs or
chicken. He has been used to these
little discomforts all his life; he sees
nothing extraordinary in room full of
smoke and people with watering eyes,
and he not infrequently drives the
traveller quite out doors. But with all
these faults, many European traveller in
Persia has risenu up and called the chapar-
ice blessed.
The caravanserai is a different place
entirely from the chapar- -khana. 1t is
simply place of shelter, both for men
and animals. Sometimes it is huge
square building, rooted completely in;
others are quadrangular affairs surround
ing an open courtyard. In either form
the camels and horses occupy the central
space, and the people find shelter in lit
tie doorless rooms along the outer edge,
called menzils. The floor of the long
rows OF menzils is elevated three or four
feet above the courtyard, and the door
ways are merely arches in the heavy brick
work of the serai. The caravanseries of
Persia are public institutions, many of
the largest having been built by Shah
Abbass the Great for the protection of
caravans. Every traveller is entitled to
shelter in them without charge. Attached
to the caravanserai, usually beneath the
massive arched entrance, is a stall where
bread, eggs, fruit, charcoal, etc., may be
obtained. The ira eler purchases a suf-
fciency of charcoal or tezek, buys what
ever he can find acceptable to eat, builds
fire on the brick floor of his menzil, and
proceeds to make himself comfortable.
Every Persian traveller is supposed to
carry with him his own cooking utensils,
bedding etc. On pinch, however, one
can obtain frying pan or kettle of some
kind, and, as in the case at the chapar-
khana, blanket or quilt, from the pro-
prietor of the provision stall.